Indian Christians laud 2016 Ramon Magsaysay Award winner

Christians in India have lauded an Indian Dalit Christian for winning the Ramon Magsaysay award for his 32-year crusade to eliminate manual scavenging.  Bezwada Wilson, a member of the Church of South India from Karnataka state, was announced on July 27 as one of the six recipients of the 2016 Ramon Magsaysay Award.   Wilson recruited volunteers and worked with Dalit activists to organize a people's ‎movement called Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA) that has filed cases and liberated hundreds of thousands from manually removing human excrement from dry latrines.‎ The Safai Karamchari Andolan that Wilson founded in 1994, has grown into a network of 7,000 members in 500 districts across the country.‎  Despite the Indian government banning the job in 2013, the practice continues as hundreds of thousands of people have no other source of income.

The Ramon Magsaysay Award, established in 1957 in commemoration of the third Philippine president, is considered Asia's equivalent of the Nobel Prize and one of Asia's ‎highest honours.  The award recognized Wilson’s work in "asserting the inalienable right to a life of human dignity. “Of ‎the estimated 600,000 scavengers in India, Wilson’s movement has liberated about half of them the ‎award citation read.

"This is a great honor for the Church. It is a sign that people can come up in society despite all odds," Auxiliary Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas of Ranchi, secretary-general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), told UCANEWS. The Church appreciates the work Wilson has been doing among manual scavengers. "He has lived the teachings of Christ in his life through his work," the bishop said.

Reverend Y. Moses, a minister of the Church of South India and board member of Safai Karmachari Andolan foundation, told UCANEWS that in the initial days, it must have been really painful for Wilson as he was all alone. Rev. Moses said he would be accompanying Wilson to Manila for the award ceremony on Aug. 31.  Although Wilson’s family had been engaged in manual scavenging for generations, he was spared the labour to be the first in his family to pursue a higher education.

Father Z. Devasagayaraj, secretary of the Indian Catholic bishops' Office of Dalit and Indigenous People, lauded Wilson’s "moral energy and prodigious skill in leading a grassroots movement to eradicate the degrading servitude of manual scavenging in India."  He said that the award is an "acknowledgement for his dedicated and committed service for the downtrodden to eradicate the subhuman work of manual scavenging."   It is also an encouragement for the people who are working for social change, he said.  

Salesian Father John Tharakan who is associated with Wilson and his work for the past two decades said Wilson "truly deserves this (award) and much more recognition for his work."  "No one has ever worked like him — with the abused and oppressed manual scavengers aiming only at their betterment," he said.  "The world has taken note of his commitment and contribution. I do hope that people of our country also respond likewise," Father Tharakan said.

The Ramon Magsaysay Award is given every year in various categories to individuals or organizations in Asia who manifest "selfless service."  Other winners of this year’s awards are Conchita Carpio-Morales of the Philippines for her anti-corruption crusade, Dompet Dhuafa an Indonesian philanthropic organization,  Vientiane Rescue an emergency aid provider in Laos, and Indian Carnatic musician Thodur Madabusi Krishna who is advocating art's power to heal the nation’s deep social divisions and the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers group that sends young adults abroad to volunteer in other communities.   (UCAN/AP)